Beguiled

BOOK ONE OF THE CHOCOLATE SERIES

Two wicked witches, with the aid of their pirate thugs, aim to take over all trade in tea, coffee, and chocolate from the magical world of Arcadia. They capture the crown princess, Princess Helen and lock her in the castle tower knowing that a handsome Prince Charming will come to her aid. She appears to Prince Garvan in a dream and he promises to come to free her.

The King of Elysium finds out that all the chocolate imported into Elysium has been poisoned. His subjects are becoming sadder and sadder by the day. After much deliberation, he decides to send the crown prince and one of his Ministers to discover a cure. Their almost impossible task is to find the recipe, and the ingredients needed to prepare an antidote. In other words, they are being sent to find the elusive Secret of Happiness to counteract the bitter potion used to poison the chocolate.

To secure the help of Martin Chan-Liu, an apprentice magician working on a secret new form of magic mirror, the Dark Queen sends her pirate allies to capture his sister, the famed Jade Princess. She escapes the pirates by entering and underground labyrinth. But Captain Sven is not so lucky. He is captured and taken to the Dark Quen's castle where she plans to extract the secret knowledge about Arcadian ships and navigation.

Martin does not know his sister has escaped the Dark Queen's clutches. The wicked witch secures his help and demands he hands over his newly developed magic mirror. The quality is so good, that he is terrified by the sights and sounds of his own sister being tortured in the Dark Queen's dungeon.

As the Prince and his companion plan their journey into the world of Darkness and Despair, they have separate encounters with the Fairy Godmother who appears to them in disguise. She gives them new names and grants them special powers to awaken their own magic and use it to reverse any spells used against them.

Will our adventurers succumb to the trickery and powers of the two wicked witches?

Read the Marshmallow and Chocolate series to discover whether they can find and use their own powers of inner magic and whether they are up to this almost impossible task.